by James Platz

Indiana fair circuit racing moved to Harrah’s Hoosier Park Racing & Casino last week, with divisions contested over three nights. As he has done in the first two rounds of fair action, freshman Checking Out turned in another dominant performance Thursday (June 20). Steered by Mike Peterson, the Check Six—This Flight Rocks gelding set all the fractions on the way to a 1:56.4 effort as the heavy favorite.

A $6,500 yearling purchase, Checking Out is owned by trainer Scott Linville, racing under the banner of Linville Racing Stable. The conditioner admitted that buying yearlings in the range of $6,000-$7,000 is the limit for his low-budget stable, but he has previously succeeded with the progeny of Check Six. He plucked the gelding from last September’s Northern Indiana Yearling Speed Sale in Topeka. Consigned by Paul Webb of Ivy Lane Farm, the pacer is out of a Rockin Image mare that won the Indiana Sires Stakes consolation as a 2-year-old.

“We thought he was a pretty nice colt,” Linville said. ‘He had everything we were looking for. Doc Webb raised him as a weanling and yearling. He told us after we bought him, ‘You bought the buy of the sale I’m pretty sure.’ He’s just done everything right growing up. Anything you ask him to do, he does.”

While the owner and trainer said Checking Out trained down like any young horse over the winter, as the months passed, the green pacer began showing promise.

“Growing up through the winter, you have no idea what you have,” he said. “The more I trained him, the more I liked him. I never have reached the bottom of the tank training him. I train pretty hard in March and April and never once have I run out of gas.”

The Goshen, IN, resident got a sense of his charge’s capabilities when schooling him at the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds this spring. That day the freshman slotted in alongside 3-year-olds, and while Linville didn’t plan to finish first, Checking Out left the field behind.

“He just happened to get to the front and nobody could catch him,” Linville said. “I knew we had something then.”

Thus far in 2024, Checking Out hasn’t just passed each test, he has excelled at every turn. In the first round of fair action at Converse, held June 5, Peterson guided the freshman to the lead from post 2. The duo received every call on the way to a near-five-length advantage, pacing the mile in 2:02.4. Linville’s trainee added his name to the Converse record books one week later. Challenged at three quarters by Clint Coy and Vel Mr Bruiser, Checking Out kicked home in :27.3, stopping the clock in a time of 1:58 to grab a share of the speed record for freshman pacing colts. The mark is also shared by Luck Be Withyou offspring Luckychris (2021) and Chocluck Chip (2023).

“Mike had to chirp to him a little bit,” Linville said. “When he did, he pulled away by five really quick. Mike just couldn’t believe how much speed he’s got. Last week at Converse, Mike came off and said going down the front stretch this dude’s looking in the grandstand and looking at the judges stand and he’s not paying attention to what he’s doing, he’s just having fun. I don’t know how good he’s going to be.”

Moving to Hoosier Park for round 3 in the fair circuit’s Quest for the Governor’s Cup, the gelding was bet down to 1-9 by his backers. While he collected his third straight win, he was relatively untested in the second of three divisions, winning handily by more than four lengths in another gate-to-wire effort. The winning time of 1:56.4 was considerably slower than the marks turned in by Derek’s Rocket (1:54.4) and Special Pete (1:55.1).

“Mike does a good job with the babies,” the trainer said. “If we get beat, we get beat. He’s not going to abuse him just to make a few extra bucks at this time.”

This spring, Linville went against tradition and staked his pupil to everything offered in Indiana. He made the move after comparing Checking Out to Attaboy Lloyd, another Check Six son he successfully campaigned for two seasons on the fair circuit.

“He’s eligible to everything in Indiana; sires stakes, Elite, the Horseman,” Linville said. “We normally don’t do that, but they are due April 15, and by that time we kind of had an idea we had something. We had Attaboy Lloyd, and he was pretty tough on the fair circuit. I told my son that he’s going to be better than Lloyd was. This colt is much bigger, more developed, and more athletic built.”

The fair circuit moves to the southern end of the state in Corydon, but Checking Out will skip a leg and instead compete again at Hoosier Park. The owner has his sights set on preparing his pupil for the first leg of Indiana Sires Stakes slated for July 12. He will take a shot with the gelding knowing that he can return to the fair circuit if the competition proves too tough.

“Right now, we’re going to go next week into the mini-series for 2-year-old colts and see how we do there,” Linville said. “We’re going to put him into the first leg of sires stakes and see how he goes. That will be his first real challenge. We know he’s going to be a decent one, but how good when he compares against the big ones down at Hoosier Park, we’ll see.”